Telangana govt planning to prune ration cards: Harish Rao

HYDERABAD: Senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao on Saturday demanded that the government issue ration cards to all applicants without pre-conditions. He accused Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and his government of trying to cut the number of beneficiaries under various schemes instead of ensuring that all those in need of assistance receive the benefits.

Addressing a press conference, Rao, who also released an open letter addressed to the Chief Minister on the ration cards issue, said that instead of selecting beneficiaries in villages, the government was drawing up the lists in Hyderabad.

“Around 11 lakh applications were submitted through Mee Seva during the Praja Palana programme, and lakhs more through Mee Seva. During the caste census, people were told that participation was voluntary. Now the government says that it will take into consideration this survey data of people who said they need a ration card. This is unacceptable. We urge everyone to raise these questions during the upcoming grama sabhas and demand ration cards to all applicants,” Rao said.

The BRS government issued 6,47,479 ration cards in ten years, and an additional 20,69,033 beneficiaries were provided ration support.

“K. Chandrasekhar Rao, adopting a humanitarian approach, had raised income limits to ensure more poor people received ration cards. From income limits of ₹60,000 in rural and ₹75,000 in urban areas, he raised them to ₹1.5 lakh and ₹2.5 lakh, respectively” he said.

Taking inflation data and price rise into consideration, Harish Rao said that the rural income limit of ₹1.5 lakh in 2014 was equivalent to ₹2.55 lakh today and the then ₹two lakh is equivalent to ₹3.4 lakh.

“The BRS demands that the government adjust income limits to ₹2.55 lakh for rural areas and ₹3.4 lakh for urban areas so that all eligible poor families can receive ration cards,” he said.